Search under way for new chief medical officer with salary of €261,000 as Dr Breda Smyth to leave role this summer

It follows the decision of the current chief medical officer, Dr Breda Smyth, to leave her post this summer and take up an academic position in the Royal College of Surgeons.

Dr Smyth was appointed the chief medical officer in November 2022, after serving in an acting capacity since the previous July, following the departure of Dr Tony Holohan, who had been in the post for 14 years.

Dr Smyth is expected to leave the Department of Health in the summer and take on the post of professor of public health at the Royal College of Surgeons.

The advertisement for her successor says the closing date for applications is Thursday, April 4.

The salary range for a CMO is from €217,325 to €261,051 and there is a probationary period of a year with 30 days’ leave and a pension payable at 66.

It comes with a need for key competencies to work in a “more complex environment” with “fewer resources, pressure for delivery of results, increased media and public scrutiny and an ambitious public service reform programme”.

The candidates can expect a preliminary interview, completion of an online questionnaire, role play and media exercise and an appearance before the Top Level Appointments Committee.

It describes the position as a pivotal and influential one which has a leading role shaping national policy and services.

The chief medical officer will report to the secretary general of the Department of Health and serve as an integral member of the senior management team.

The role includes providing structured and strategic evidence-based advice on medical, ethical and public health matters in relation to departmental policy priorities to the Health Minister and the department, the advertisement says.

The chief medical officer should “also provide leadership and strategic direction for the national public health response to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

And they should oversee and support ongoing public health reform initiatives in the wider health service.

The job has traditionally been largely backroom and it was not until the Covid pandemic that many people could identify Dr Holohan as chief medical officer when he became a household name.

There is now a view that the role should be re-defined because of the presence of a number of senior medics in the HSE who implement policy on the ground.

It is also planned to set up a new agency which would oversee Ireland’s readiness for public health threats including another potential pandemic.

Dr Smyth, who lives in Galway but works from in the Department of Health on ­Dublin’s Baggot Street, was a public health doctor in the west for around 20 years and was a professor of public health medicine at the University of Galway.

A shortlist of candidates is expected to be drawn up after the closing date next month depending on how many candidates apply.